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Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Who Volunteers for Humiliation?

Sidney Herald
religion column published May 26, 2013

At Landsberg, Germany, as the U.S. Army occupies and loots
the defeated German town, Capt. Lewis Nixon carries on his quest for Vat 69, a
Scotch blended whiskey. He has become a drunk, but will drink only the best. He
finds a house that looks rich enough to have some. Inside, the home is well
appointed. He sees a framed photograph of a high-ranking officer, looks at it,
and drops it. The officer’s wife appears behind him. She looks at the broken
glass, then at Nixon. She glares at him defiantly.

Outside Landsberg, the army liberates a concentration camp
of wasting survivors and corpses. Local civilians deny knowing anything about
it. Gen. Maxwell Taylor orders them, ages 14 to 80, to clean it up and bury the
dead.

Nixon sees charred corpses carried one by one. He sees the
same woman, finely dressed, doubled over, trying to drag a dead body from a
pile. She meets his gaze, still with an air of defiance, the arrogant kind that
festers into impotent rage.

When an exalted person is forcibly brought low, that is
humiliation, but the person is not necessarily humble. He is humiliated by
force, not by his own humility. Nixon saw that in the woman of rank.

Although Jesus came from heaven and ranks with the Father
and the Holy Spirit, He was humiliated in five stages: birth in poverty, life of
suffering, crucifixion, death, and burial. But Jesus is different from the
officer’s wife because his humiliation was voluntary. His own humility brought
on his humiliation. No one forced it on him. “He humbled himself by becoming
obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Ephesians 2:8)

Jesus knew He was going to be humiliated. “He began to tell
them what was to happen to him, saying, “They will ... mock him and spit on him,
and flog him and kill him.” (Mark 10:32-34)

When Jesus was arrested, “One of those who were with Jesus
stretched out his hand and drew his sword and struck the servant of the high
priest and cut off his ear. Then Jesus said to him, ‘Put your sword back into
its place. … Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once
send me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then should the Scriptures
be fulfilled?’” (Matthew 26:51-54)

Laying aside twelve legions, Jesus volunteered. He said, “I
lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay
it down of my own accord.” (John 10:17-18)

When Jesus spoke that way, “Many of them said, ‘He has a
demon, and is insane; why listen to him?’” (John 10:20) With them, we are
tempted to think we are above needing him to humiliate himself for us. The Holy
Spirit calls us to contrition and faith. He calls us to see the enormity of sin,
and the humble power of Jesus to save.